Thousands of New Orleans children who were trapped in dismal public schools before Katrina have been rescued by a plethora of educational options afforded to them since the storm.

That has been in great part due to the flexibility and innovation fostered by dozens of independent charter schools created after the storm. Run in many cases by resident-led non-profits, the charters also have spurred an unprecedented level of civic involvement in a system that badly needed it.

That still would leave the recovery district running as many as 29 schools. But Superintendent Paul Vallas said he hopes to convert a few schools to charters every year. Mr. Vallas believes that having a system dominated by charters and independent schools is the best way to "insulate the district from the adverse effects of having a monopolistic education system."

That's a conclusion backed by the system's progress since Katrina. Many New Orleans schools have made significant academic gains, and charters have led the way in transforming failed schools into improving campuses. Within the RSD schools, for example, students in charters outperformed non-charter students in standardized tests.

More importantly, parents now have a choice when deciding where their kids go to school.

There are still, of course, many schools that are performing well below the state average on standardized tests, but the trends in recent years are promising.

That does not mean charter schools are free of problems. RSD officials and the Orleans Parish School Board, which also charters some schools, must ensure that existing and new charters are financially viable and keep making academic progress. Officials also must help charters better coordinate services to save public funds. And they need to make it easier for parents to learn about all the city's educational options and to register their children.

The progress since Katrina has not stopped teacher unions and other opponents of widespread charter efforts from criticizing independent schools. They say more charters would only dilute accountability and public ownership of schools.

That's nonsense. With more New Orleanians than ever directly involved in running schools, the public now has a more concrete level of ownership than in the centralized mess we had before the storm.

As for accountability, charters must adhere to the same requirements as other public schools and meet additional thresholds of academic and financial performance in order to retain their independent status. Principals and the private boards that run charters are held responsible for their school performance in a way that public schools were not before Katrina. And parents' have the ultimate accountability instrument: their ability to take their children to another school.

For these reasons, charters and independent schools may be the best way to inoculate New Orleans against recreating the failed system we had before Katrina. Further expanding educational options is the right strategy, and that's what state officials should keep pursuing.